Sunday, May 15, 2011

Can’t Resist Being Awesome

My daughter is always trying to resist becoming who she is. She is so filled with passion and power that it scares her. She’d like to be less instead of more. She’d like to be a tidy rose instead of a brilliant sunflower. I’m hoping she can learn to cherish the fire inside and stop resisting.

I was overcome with emotion as I worked on this portrait of her in all of her fiery glory. According to many, however, I cheated. I skipped the agony of trying to recreate the exact shape of her face and moved on to expression. But if I had begun this portrait from scratch, I would have been mired at some earlier point in the process. Rather than get hung up on details, I traced her sweet face directly over the photo, using layers in paint.net. Then I removed the photo and went directly to CREATING. The joy for me is in adding color, line and fun elements to tease out how the subject makes me feel. With the hard part “in the bag,” I was able to spend a lot of time shading and adding features with a digital pen and paintbrush.

I can’t resist cheating by purposely eluding the rules. Welcome to the new easy. It’s your art adventure: choose your own path. Kelli

Wonderful portrait, you caught her essence as well as her likeness! I love your stand for doing art however it works for you - sometimes it gets so complicated only an Einstein could do it - if he had the time...LOL

Love this. Art doesn't need to follow rules. Art can fly in any direction it wants. And boy did you fly! This is great, and very inspiring!! I hope your daughter will use her powers for good, rather than try to squish them down.

This is wonderful. I have drawn my children too, and it is such and emotional process. She is beautiful, and I hope she grows into her own power with grace. It is a hard thing to be a fire-filled woman, but worth it.